had been kept back.

We accordingly went to the meeting, where Mr Sprose, at my
suggestion, stated, that we had received no answer; and that we

could not explain how the delay had arisen. This, however, did not
pacify the volunteers; but they appointed certain of their own

number, a committee, to attend to the business, and to communicate
with the secretary of state direct; intimating, that the members of

the committee were those whom they intended to elect for their
officers. This was a decisive step, and took the business entirely

out of the hands of the magistrates; so, after the meeting, both Mr
Sprose and myself agreed, that no time should be lost in

communicating to the lord-lieutenant what had taken place.
Our letter, and the volunteers' letter, went by the same post; and

on receiving ours, the lord-lieutenant had immediately some
conference with the secretary of state, who, falling into the views

of his lordship, in preferring the offers of the corps proposed by
the gentry, sent the volunteers word in reply, that their services,

on the terms they had proposed, which were of the least possible
expense to government, could not be accepted.

It was hoped that this answer would have ended the matter; but there
were certain propugnacious spirits in the volunteers' committee; and

they urged and persuaded the others to come into resolutions, to the
effect that, having made early offers of service, on terms less

objectionable in every point than those of many offers subsequently
made and accepted, unless their offer was accepted, they would

consider themselves as having the authority of his majesty's
government to believe and to represent, that there was, in truth, no

reason to apprehend that the enemy meditated any invasion and these
resolutions they sent off to London forthwith, before the

magistrates had time to hear or to remonstrate against the use of
such novel language from our burgh to his majesty's ministers.

We, however, heard something; and I wrote my lord, to inform him
that the volunteers had renewed their offer, (for so we understood

their representation was;) and he, from what he had heard before
from the secretary of state, not expecting the effect it would have,

answered me, that their offer could not be accepted. But to our
astonishment, by the same post, the volunteers found themselves

accepted, and the gentlemen they recommended for their officers
gazetted; the which, as I tell frankly, was an admonition to me,

that the peremptory will of authority was no longer sufficient for
the rule of mankind; and, therefore, I squared my after conduct more

by a deference to public opinion, than by any laid down maxims and
principles of my own; the consequence of which was, that my

influence still continued to grow and gather strength in the
community, and I was enabled to accomplish many things that my

predecessors would have thought it was almost beyond the compass of
man to undertake.

CHAPTER XXIX--CAPTAIN ARMOUR
In the course of these notandums, I have, here and there, touched on

divers matters that did not actuallypertain to my own magisterial
life, further than as showing the temper and spirit in which

different things were brought to a bearing; and, in the same way, I
will now again step aside from the regular course of public affairs,

to record an occurrence which, at the time, excited no small
wonderment and sympathy, and in which it was confessed by many that

I performed a very judicious part. The event here spoken of, was
the quartering in the town, after the removal of that well-behaved

regiment, the Argyle fencibles, the main part of another, the name
and number of which I do not now recollect; but it was an English

corps, and, like the other troops of that nation, was not then
brought into the sobriety of discipline to which the whole British

army has since been reduced, by the paternalperseverance of his
Royal Highness the Duke of York; so that, after the douce and

respectful Highlanders, we sorely felt the consequences of the
outstropolous and galravitching Englishers, who thought it no

disgrace to fill themselves as fou as pipers, and fight in the
streets, and march to the church on the Lord's day with their band

of music. However, after the first Sunday, upon a remonstrance on
the immorality of such irreligious bravery, Colonel Cavendish, the

commandant, silenced the musicians.
Among the officers, there was one Captain Armour, an extraordinar

well demeaned, handsome man, who was very shy of accepting any
civility from the town gentry, and kept himself aloof from all our

ploys and entertainments, in such a manner, that the rest of the
officers talked of him, marvelling at the cause, for it was not his

wont in other places.
One Sabbath, during the remembering prayer, Mr Pittle put up a few

words for criminals under sentence of death, there being two at the
time in the Ayr jail, at the which petition I happened to look at

Captain Armour, who, with the lave of the officers, were within the
magistrates' loft, and I thought he had, at the moment, a likeness

to poor Jeanie Gaisling, that was executed for the murder of her
bastard bairn.

This notion at the time disturbed me very much, and one thought
after another so came into my head, that I could pay no attention to

Mr Pittle, who certainly was but a cauldrife preacher, and never
more so than on that day. In short, I was haunted with the fancy,

that Captain Armour was no other than the misfortunate lassie's poor
brother, who had in so pathetical a manner attended her and the

magistrates to the scaffold; and, what was very strange, I was not
the only one in the kirk who thought the same thing; for the

resemblance, while Mr Pittle was praying, had been observed by many;
and it was the subject of discourse in my shop on the Monday

following, when the whole history of that most sorrowful concern was
again brought to mind. But, without dwelling at large on the

particularities, I need only mention, that it began to be publicly
jealoused that he was indeed the identical lad, which moved every

body; for he was a very good and gallant officer, having risen by
his own merits, and was likewise much beloved in the regiment.

Nevertheless, though his sister's sin was no fault of his, and could
not impair the worth of his well-earned character, yet some of the

thoughtless young ensigns began to draw off from him, and he was
visited, in a manner, with the disgrace of an excommunication.

Being, however, a sensible man, he bore it for a while patiently,
may be hoping that the suspicion would wear away; but my lord, with

all his retinue, coming from London to the castle for the summer,
invited the officers one day to dine with him and the countess, when

the fact was established by a very simple accident.
Captain Armour, in going up the stairs, and along the crooked old

passages of the castle, happened to notice that the colonel, who was
in the van, turned to the wrong hand, and called to him to take the

other way, which circumstance convinced all present that he was
domestically familiar with the labyrinths of the building; and the

consequence was, that, during dinner, not one of the officers spoke
to him, some from embarrassment and others from pride.

The earl perceiving their demeanour, enquired of the colonel, when
they had returned from the table to the drawing-room, as to the

cause of such a visible alienation, and Colonel Cavendish, who was
much of the gentleman, explaining it, expressing his grief that so

unpleasant a discovery had been made to the prejudice of so worthy a
man, my lord was observed to stand some time in a thoughtful

posture, after which he went and spoke in a whisper to the countess,
who advised him, as her ladyship in the sequel told me herself, to

send for me, as a wary and prudent man. Accordingly a servant was
secretly dispatched express to the town on that errand; my lord and

my lady insisting on the officers staying to spend the evening with
them, which was an unusualcivility at the PRO FORMA dinners at the

castle.
When I arrived, the earl took me into his private library, and we

had some serious conversation about the captain's sister; and, when
I had related the circumstantialities of her end to him, he sent for

the captain, and with great tenderness, and a manner most kind and
gracious, told him what he had noticed in the conduct of the

officers, offering his mediation to appease any difference, if it
was a thing that could be done.